Polymer materials have been used as molds and as laminate molds for many years. However, the typical polymer molds and laminate molds have many drawbacks with respect to the scale of what can be molded therein. Such drawbacks generally result from chemical and physical interaction between the materials of the molds and the materials being molded therein. Typically, as the structures to be molded are reduced in size and approach tens or hundreds of micrometers or less, the typical mold materials fail to perform as molds. These failures can include the failure to accept material into such mold cavities and failure to release, especially release cleanly, any materials that do enter the mold cavities. Therefore, there is a need in the art for materials that can form molds having cross-sectional dimensions of less than tens of micrometers, less than micrometers, and less than 500 nanometers that can accept materials into mold cavities and cleanly release materials molded therein. Furthermore, the smaller the feature sizes of the article being formed in the mold, the closer that feature size comes to defects and blemishes produced by the conventional molding materials and methods.
The applicants have previously disclosed PFPE based materials that overcome these drawbacks and disclose herein further methods, materials, and articles for overcoming such drawbacks.